The Secrets of the Dying Brain 

This piece, by Onno Berkan, was published on 10/01/24. The original piece, by Jordan Kinard, was published in the Scientific American.

A deep dive into the last living moments of the human mind reveal that death is “not the simple dimming of one’s internal light of awareness but rather an incredibly active process in the brain.” Terminal lucidity, or the regaining of consciousness and personality moments to days before death was studied in patients revived using CPR, and it was suggested that there may be cognitive structures remaining in patients thought to be lost causes, as the brain was found to light up even after minutes of heart-death.

Want to submit a piece? Or trying to write a piece and struggling? Check out the guides here!

Thank you for reading. Reminder: Byte Sized is open to everyone! Feel free to submit your piece. Please read the guides first though.

All submissions to berkan@usc.edu with the header “Byte Sized Submission” in Word Doc format please. Thank you!